The Long Branch Variety Show is a western saloon show presented in the Long Branch Saloon located at Boot Hill Museum, a non-profit entertainment and museum theme park in Dodge City, Kansas. The exterior of the new Long Branch Saloon was built in 1958 and modeled on period photographs of the original Long Branch Saloon building, which burned down in 1885 and was not rebuilt. The interior is largely based on the Gunsmoke television show and is consistent with period saloons of the era. It is furnished with an 1881 bar and two Golden Eagles on top of the back bar that were once owned by Chalkley Beeson. It features actors portraying characters including Miss Kitty, the "Queen of Dodge City" and Chalkley Beeson, the saloon owner. The show was initially presented during the summer of 1958 as a temporary offering over the 4th of July holiday. The show proved so popular that it was continued. It has been presented seven nights a week during the summer months since then, making it one of the longest running seasonal shows of its type in the nation. Origin The original concept for the show was developed by Rosemary & Lewis Mock. Dr. Mock was a local Dodge City optometrist and his wife was noted as a local entertainer and both were well-suited to form the show. The 1958 reconstruction of the first six buildings of Front Street in Dodge City, was built at the base of what had become known as Boot Hill where early inhabitants of Dodge City who met an unfortunate demise were "buried with their boots on." One of those original six buildings was the new Long Branch Saloon. The Long Branch was known for its entertainment since an early owner was Chalkley Beeson who formed the original Dodge City Cowboy Band. It made sense that the reconstructed saloon should have some sort of show. The Mocks approached the museum director about providing entertainment in the saloon and were given the go-ahead to develop the early show. Gunsmoke The TV show Gunsmoke premiered in 1955 and brought Dodge City much publicity. The traveling public was also enamored with the new medium of television and so they wanted to visit this place called Dodge City and belly-up to the bar in the Long Branch Saloon and hoped to get a glimpse of Miss Kitty and Marshal Matt Dillon. The very